Joined: 13 May 2003Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 11:55 pm Post subject:

adventureman wrote:

Peppermint just out of curiosity, what kind of things do you prep?

As I believe I've mentioned, my school wants me to stick pretty closely to the national curriculum, and it's mostly in Korean. Basically, I take a look at the teachers guide, figure out how long the usable bits from that will take and try to come up with a reasonable activity related to it to fill in the rest. I gather flashcards, pictures, make word searches ( vocab only) sheets to help th younger ones learn to write- which they love!

The best advice I've gotten for handling such a big class is to stop worrying. You can't hope to control all 45 kids all the time, but as long as the noise is down to a dull roar, no one is killed and people are learning, you're probably doing a good job.

Quote:

I hate to sound like the damper daisy, and I'm sure pepermint will beg differ with this, but I would stongly advise against against being a native teacher in public elementary school (unless you have a ton of experience)...This was my first real teaching gig...I was the first and only foreign teacher ever at my schools and got almost nothing in the way of support,. . .
And I don't even get the extended vacations.

WEll, I agree the combo of your first teaching gig and their first foreigner would make for one hell of a baptism of fire. Congrats on sticking it out. It seems that teaching the older kids means more support- the school probably has specialized English teachers who can communicate and what not, as well as tighter discipline, and better language skills from the students.

At my school I'm really lucky because the guy who's doing civil service at the school lived in Canada for seven years and he's essentially my translator, gofer and according to students- boyfriend. Basically, it's one of those things where the co-workers can really make or break the gig.

Adman has one very good point-not ALL public school teachers get the vacation gravy train. I sure as hell don't. The only way I get an extended vacation is to quit...what a difference from Japan's JET!!!!

I'm in the same school system as peppermint, although I teach middle school boys. I teach all 3 grades. My first and second years I see once a week for the whole year. With my 3rd graders, I see 3 classes once a week for two months and then switch to another 3 classes. In essence I teach 3 lessons a week for each grade. I don't teach from any book, but rather try and come up with lessons that dove tail out of what they are learning. For instance, the kids were studying about garage sales. So I did a unit on garage sales, which included a 'homeshopping' show where the kids sold some products and we had a grage sale in class. For the cooking show the guys made either sandwiches or pudding. I come in one time on a month on saturdays (I volunteered for that) to help out with club activity days.

What I lvoe about my job is that the pay is good (although I did get higher offers from hogwons), and I have never had any problems with pay. My 1st and 2nd grade students rock and because I give up a little bit of time on saturday, my school thinks the sun shines out of my butt.

I got my job through a contact on daves. I really think that if your looking at public school job, you have to treat it like a real job. I am at school 8.30-4.30 five days a week during term time. You can't go out drinking during week nights and try and teach 40+ kids the next day, you need to be at the top of your game every lesson and the school won't apperciate repeated sessions of bingo, hangman or wordsearches plucked of the internet. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who hasn't taught in korea before, although if you have taught previously in another country you could do it but must be prepared to alter you teaching style and ideology to fit the demands of the korean system.

What's the best way to apply for a specific public school position in a specific location?

On a recent visit to my wife's tiny farming village in Jangseong (Near Gwangju, Jeollanam-do) we stopped by her old elementary school and met briefly with some of the staff there... we even met the "native" English teacher... a very nice young man from South Africa who lives in Gwangju, and teaches there a few times a week.

The principal explained that the the town's population is significantly reduced from 30 years ago when my wife attended the local elementary school there, so the student population is 10 times as small (!).

We are hard working idealistic dreamers, so we are excited about the possibility of moving here, and living and working in this place where we have mostly just spent a few weekends, and holidays, etc. Maybe even persuade some of her family and friends with children to join us. We currently have no children.

There's a lot more to the story, so message me here if you're interested in hearing about our Kimchi Farm in Albuquerque, New MExico .

I have 2 years Hagwon teaching experience from about 5 years ago. So far EPIK doesn't seem interested in working with me on this, and I've lost touch with my contacts at the school.